Story Maker

Story Maker is a free app that allows you to create your own avatars and then use them to make a story. You can choose from a variety of faces, hair styles, clothing, accessories and shoes. Characters can then be named and saved for use in your stories. When you go to create a story you can add in background items. These items can be moved around the screen but not resized, I’m hoping that’s addressed in a future update. Text may also be added and this is where you type your story. The text will appear at the bottom of the screen and I’m only able to get about three lines to show on the screen so obviously stories will need to be simple ones. Finished characters and stories are saved in a gallery where they can be easily accessed for future use. You may share them with others through Twitter, Facebook or Email. You may also print them out using Air Print.

I’ve already mentioned that Story Maker is free you can get “Story Packs” by in-app purchase. The Three Little Pigs and Cinderella are the current story packs and each costs $.99.

Now it’s time for me to summarize my thoughts and I think I’m going to start with the cons and then end with the things I liked about Story Maker. This is nit picky but when you are selecting your character traits, backgrounds, etc. they appear at the top of your screen. Two navigation arrows (left & right) flank the choices but when I tapped on them nothing happened except I was occasionally bumped out of the app. I could scroll through the items by swiping my finger but using the arrows would have made this easier. I’m guessing this is a bug that will be addressed in future updates. I’ve already mentioned that I’d like to see the ability to resize background objects and I think there definitely needs to be more room for text. Also, I was only able to add in one item from each background category, this was limiting. Finally, be aware that you are only able to create one scene/story at a time and they can’t be combined. Meaning, if you want your story to have more than one pages you’ll need to make them each a separate “story”. Currently there is no way to combine them in the app but you could print them out and then put them together in a book.

Enough cons, here are the things I appreciated about Story Maker. The graphics have a whimsical paper craft feel to them. Story Maker HD is the version for the iPad (it’s the one I tried out) and the characters really stood out on the screen. The character creation process is straightforward and children should have no problem creating their avatars. Finally, you can’t beat the free price tag and apps tend to evolve and work out their kinks through updates. I’m sure my children could do some serious damage to our ink cartridges if we had access to Air Print and they were able to print out avatars all day. That is just up my eight year old’s alley!

Price when Reviewed: FREE with $.99 In-App purchases

See the iPhone app and the HD iPad app in iTunes

Seller: BlueFinger